If the readers watched “Lords of Chaos”, you all can understand that many standard features of Black Metal scene were born from a fundamentalist insight in music and in the way a Metalhead must be. Today, many of those ways aren’t used anymore, but from time to time, someone resurrects something from the past. And NONE did it on “Damp Chill of Life”. The band members didn’t show their names, signing just as “anonymous” (this is the feature from the past mentioned above). But their music is truly good, a sad, darkened and melancholic form of Ambient/Depressive Black Metal. Of course some of their musical elements were used many times before, but the way the duet plays is good, what will seduce the fans of this specific Black Metal genre, and can gain extreme Metal fans as well.

Their melancholic and aggressive insight gains a boost due the nasty sound quality that was built for “Damp Chill of Life”. It tries to sound as raw as on early days of Black Metal, but not in a way that the comprehension of what they’re doing would be harmed. No, the rawness comes mainly from the instrumental tunes used during the recordings. It’s good, but could be better. The long, darkened and melancholic “The Damp Chill of Life” with its nasty guitar riffs and agonizing shrieks (and tender melodies), “Cease” and its morbid pianos touches, the aggressive and funereal approach presented on “It’s Painless to Let Go” and on “A Chance I’d Never Have” are their best sinister hymns, but they could have shown more songs with vocals.

Even with “The Damp Chill of Life” not being the eighth wonder of the world, NONE proves itself to be a good name that will conquer many fans of Depressive Black Metal. But setting things in a better in the future will make them grow outside of the genre’s bounds.

Too often popular music treats depression as if it were a strike of lightning, or an extra-sensorial event, entirely separate from whatever normative state unaffected folks feign on a daily basis. The bend of a string, a weeping vocal affect, or a descent into downtempo swooning offer a simplified and fetishistic treatment of sorrow that is altogether inhumane in its core assumption. As if a leaking anesthetic gas tamed by an open window t...

None is “depressive black metal”—subgenre that is stubbornly unwilling to disappear despite the merciless derision and criticism coming from some quarters—and it’s presumably a human alone working in a hu/wo/it/man/cave somewhere in the state of Oregon, U.S., where it is grey, cold, cloudy and rainy, and where, to add insult to injury, the beaches do not even warm up during the months of July and August, so there might as wel...

Damp Chill of Life is a poignant slab of cohesively crafted atmospheric black metal, using the DNA from Burzum’s earlier works to form the bulk of this nihilistic and oppressive soundscape. With that, it’s fairly easy to gather an idea of what to expect from this band’s third effort. Second-wave black metal is followed, almost, to the letter; be it the haunting guitar melodies, lo-fi fuzz, reverb-y drums, or the genre’s signatur...

Another April is upon us and with it comes a new NONE release. Maybe it’s tied to a date of meaning for one of the anonymous members of the band and maybe it’s a reflection of the fact that at this point in April winter is still very present in more northern areas. Whatever the case Damp Chill of Life continues to see the band grow, this time with more focus than ever on the quieter aspects of its sound. There’s a distinct sense o...

None are a black metal band from the US and this is their third album.

The artists behind None have released an album every April since 2017’s very enjoyable self titled debut. In 2018 we were treated to the superior and very well-formed Life Has Gone on Enough, which saw the band’s blackened vision improve even further. Now it’s 2019, and we have Damp Chill of Life, the apex of their development so far.